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SENATORS ON DEFENSE OVER GUN VOTE – Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s vote against background checks for gun purchases isn’t playing particularly well back home, POLITICO’s Manu Raju reports from Tilton, N.H.: “In the aftermath of the Senate’s failed vote two weeks ago to expand background checks, New Hampshire has suddenly emerged as Ground Zero in the national battle over gun control, with Ayotte now stuck at the center of the fight. Powerful outside groups, run by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, are bankrolling ads and vowing to dump huge resources into the state to either force Ayotte to reverse her opposition to the bill or pay the political consequences. And after two years of projecting a profile as a foreign policy and deficit hawk, her critics in the state have spent the last two weeks trying to rebrand her as: ‘NRAyotte.’

-- “Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association is running radio ads thanking her for her support. The emotional fight threatens to transform Ayotte — a young conservative Republican woman whose star is on the rise — into a polarizing figure back home on a contentious issue. Instead of taking up the banner of gun rights, Ayotte is seeking a lower profile on the subject in a state where she’s become the last Republican in the all-female congressional delegation.” http://politi.co/13KPgWL

PROGRESSIVES PRESSURE BAUCUS WITH $50K AD BUY – The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has just launched a TV ad pressuring retiring Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to support background checks for gun sales, a provision he voted against the last time around. Starting today, the ad will run for a week on broadcast and cable in the Helena, Missoula and Billings media markets. It will also run on cable in Washington on MSNBC and CNN. The initial ad buy is $50,000, and PCCC expects that to grow as its members donate. The ad features Claire Kelly, a gun owner and grandmother who lives in rural Stevensville, Montana. “Guns can protect us,” she says, “but we’re less safe with guns in the wrong hands.” Watch it here: http://youtu.be/GQfhes5_ZPA

FLAKE: I’M LESS POPULAR THAN ‘POND SCUM’ AFTER GUN VOTE -- Benjy Sarlin writes for Talking Points Memo: “Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has an interesting take on a recent poll by Democratic Public Policy Polling that showed his approval rating imploding after his recent vote against expanded background checks for gun purchases: It's probably right. ‘Nothing like waking up to a poll saying you're the nation's least popular senator,’ Flake wrote on his Facebook page late Monday night. ‘Given the public's dim view of Congress in general, that probably puts me somewhere just below pond scum.’ The poll by PPP concluded Flake is one of the least popular senators in America less than six months after his election, with only 32 percent approval and 51 percent disapproval among Arizona respondents. 52 percent said they were less likely to vote for him as a result of his vote against the Manchin-Toomey amendment, which enjoyed 70 percent backing in the same poll.” http://bit.ly/ZzofWJFacebook page:http://on.fb.me/11BFS6i

-- Flake’s also getting beat up by the right for his work on immigration reform. Here’s the headline of a news release Tuesday from fellow GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions: “Sessions: Senator Flake Is Wrong: It’s Not A 13-Year Path To Citizenship Or Welfare.”

HAPPENING TODAY: OBAMA TO NOMINATE MEL WATT HEAD OF FANNIE MAE REGULATOR -- Cheyenne Hopkins & Clea Benson report for Bloomberg: “Housing industry officials expect President Barack Obama to nominate Representative Mel Watt, a Democrat from North Carolina, as director of the federal Housing Finance Agency as early as today, according to three people briefed on the matter. The White House has been struggling to find a replacement for Edward J. DeMarco, who has served as acting director since 2009. FHFA is charged with oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (FMCC), the two mortgage financing companies that were taken into U.S. conservatorship as a result of the housing crisis. Watt was elected to Congress in 1992. In 2005, he was elected chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, a post he held until 2006. He cosponsored the 2009 Credit Card Act that required more disclosures for consumer card products.” http://bloom.bg/11BNLbO

-- Watt becomes the second African American, North Carolina Democrat this week to be nominated for a high-level post in the Obama administration. The president tapped Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to become his Transportation secretary.

MASS. SENATE: NEWCOMER GOMEZ TO TAKE ON VETERAN MARKEY – Michael Levenson and Frank Phillips report on A1 of the Boston Globe: “Gabriel E. Gomez, a businessman making his first run for higher office, won the Republican senatorial primary Tuesday, scoring an upset victory that has the potential to draw major national interest as he prepares to face Edward J. Markey, a veteran congressman who rolled to a win in the Democratic contest. Gomez, a 47-year-old private equity ­investor from Cohasset, used his fund­raising advantage to soundly defeat Michael J. Sullivan, a former state and federal prosecutor considered the front-runner for the GOP nomination. Daniel B. Winslow, a state representative and former district court judge, ran a distant third. Markey, 66, the choice of the Democratic establishment who has been in the House for 36 years, built on his strong support in the party’s base of progressive activists, rolling up wide margins in liberal communities to defeat US Representative Stephen F. Lynch, who courted conservative Democrats and independents. …

--“Gomez’s come-from-behind victory creates a major shift in what had been a sleepy campaign to replace John F. Kerry, even though the race is one of several over the next two years that may determine control of the US Senate. With his unexpected victory, Gomez, the son of Colombian immigrants and a former Navy SEAL, now promises to draw strong interest from national Republicans who are looking to rebrand the party as more ­inclusive of Latinos after a ­disastrous showing with ­minorities in last year’s presidential election.” http://b.globe.com/15ZezZx

A HOUSE IN CHAOS – Jake Sherman reports for the hometown paper: “Less than two weeks ago, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy walked upstairs to Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s Capitol office to discuss a sensitive issue: Why did Cantor schedule a vote before McCarthy had the chance to survey Republican support? The meeting — described as ‘tense’ by several people familiar with it — ended with McCarthy abruptly standing up and storming out of the room. Aides downplayed the exchange. But a week later, it turned out that McCarthy’s pique was merited: The health care-related bill was suddenly pulled from the floor in what was the most recent stumble for House Republicans.

-- “The GOP leadership is dealing with an unprecedented level of frustration in running the House, according to conversations with more than a dozen aides and lawmakers in and around leadership. Leadership is talking past each other. The conference is split by warring factions. And influential outside groups are fighting them. The chaos has led to a sense of stalemate for House Republicans, who have been in the majority since 2011. … Speaker John Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy are plagued by a conference split into two groups. In one camp are stiff ideologues who didn’t extract any lesson from Mitt Romney’s loss and are only looking to slash spending and defund President Barack Obama’s health care law at every turn. In the other are lawmakers who are aligned with Cantor, who is almost singularly driving an agenda which is zeroed in on family issues.” http://politi.co/ZVsStG

FIRST LOOK: NRCC DARES DEMS TO DEFEND OBAMACARE – The National Republican Campaign Committee will blast news releases to vulnerable House Democrats daring them to defend the health care law. Here’s an example: “President Obama stepped in front of the press yesterday and unleashed a tortured eight minute answer defending his disastrous healthcare law. All this on a day that a new poll showed only 35 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the law. So, it’s time Annie Kuster got her shot to defend the government takeover of healthcare. Since the law was passed, ObamaCare has stunted job growth, kicked families off their healthcare plans, hurt small businesses and raised premiums. ‘It took eight painful minutes for President Obama to defend his own healthcare law,’ said NRCC Communications Director Andrea Bozek. ‘How long would it take Annie Kuster to explain her support for higher premiums and reduced benefits to New Hampshire families?’

THE HOUSE MAJORITY PAC, a Democratic Super PAC, is out with a video this morning accusing Republicans of being afraid to meet with constituents this recess week. Watch here: http://youtu.be/vxPcGRNvqHw

GAY RIGHTS PROVISION THREATENS TO DERAIL IMMIGRATION REFORM – Carrie Budoff Brown has the story for POLITICO: “The most serious threat to bipartisan immigration reform doesn’t involve border security or guest workers or even the path to citizenship. It’s about gay rights. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has told advocates that he will offer an amendment during the bill markup next week allowing gay Americans to sponsor their foreign-born partners for green cards, just as heterosexual couples can. The measure is likely to pass because Democrats face pressure from gay rights advocates to deal with it in committee, rather than on the Senate floor, where the odds of passage are far less favorable. But by doing so, Republicans warn that Democrats will tank the whole bill.

-- “‘It will virtually guarantee that it won’t pass,’ Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the Gang of Eight negotiating group, told POLITICO in a brief interview. ‘This issue is a difficult enough issue as it is. I respect everyone’s views on it. But ultimately, if that issue is injected into this bill, the bill will fail and the coalition that helped put it together will fall apart.’ … The provision has the potential to immediately fracture the senators and a diverse alliance of backers that includes conservative evangelicals and liberal union chiefs. It’s the focus of an intense lobbying push this week by the United States Conference of the Catholic Bishops, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Human Rights Campaign and others as senators map out strategy ahead of the markup.” http://politi.co/18mn2Ta

-- Rubio also told a conservative radio station that the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill probably can’t pass the House in its current form:http://politi.co/Zklghn

BENNET SEEKS TO OUST REPUBLICANS,WOO THEM ON IMMIGRATION – Bloomberg’s Kathleen Hunter and Jennifer Oldham report: “The Democrat in charge of trying to run Republicans out of the U.S. Senate in 2014 is courting those same lawmakers for an agreement on immigration. Colorado Senator Michael Bennet is working closely with Republicans on a rewrite of immigration policy he co-authored. At the same time, he’s responsible for defeating as many Republican Senate candidates as possible in 2014, including one of his bill’s co-sponsors.

-- “As he juggles his role as chairman of the Democratic Senate campaign committee with bipartisan negotiations on immigration policy, Bennet’s election targets include South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham -- one of eight senators instrumental in shaping the immigration bill. This is another measure of the political difficulty of enacting legislation which, as drafted, offers employers more access to both lower-skilled and higher-skilled workers in the U.S. on visas while offering the undocumented a path to citizenship. … [Said Graham:] “I told him to spend all the money in South Carolina he wants to; I’m going to beat his brains out.’” http://bloom.bg/14TWZWU

GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING, MAY 1, 2013, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of the day’s congressional news. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to swong@politico.com. If you don't already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.

My new followers include @NettieSilleck and @RepKirkpatrick.

TODAY IN CONGRESS – Both the House and Senate are on recess this week.

AROUND TOWN –

SOFTBALL ROSTERS SET – Roll Call’s Abby Livingston has the rosters for the annual Congressional Women’s Softball Game, which will be played on June 26 and features our own Carrie Budoff Brown.

HAL ROGERS LIVID OVER FAA FIX – David Rogers writes for POLITICO: “The old county courthouse lawyer came out in Hal Rogers last week as the Kentucky Republican tore into the Federal Aviation Administration for springing on Congress — without warning he insisted — its fateful furloughs of air traffic controllers. ‘Not a word, not a breath,’ said the one-time prosecutor, now chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. It was a new “imperialism … disgusting.” He was not just ‘shocked’ by the abruptness of the FAA’s actions but the ‘shocking lack of management’ that followed. As for the advance notice given to the airlines, Rogers melted that down like butter on a hot skillet.

--“In the witness chair, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta vainly kept repeating that Rogers’s old House-mate, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, had been warning of furloughs since at least mid-February. Huerta himself shared operational details with the airlines April 16, five days before the furloughs began. No sale. ‘Well, la-di-dah!’ snorted Rogers, unimpressed. And with each question from the chairman, Huerta’s five days only got shorter and shorter. First it was ‘a few days.’ Then: ‘You waited until hours before it was placed into effect.’ Rogers told the administrator. Soon after: ‘Were they shocked when you told them at the last minute?’

-- “It was all comically caustic — about Rogers’s frustration as much as the FAA. No other House chairman has enacted more deficit reduction in the past three years. None has been more subject to the whims of his leadership and the ever-changing spending targets set for his committee. Indeed, the most striking memory of last week may be just how paranoid both parties have become in this Congress caught between hard choices and political paralysis.” http://politi.co/18mOEYl

DURBIN DELIVERS FOR RETAILERS AGAIN – Steven Sloan and Lauren French report for POLITICO: “Dick Durbin is at it again. The Senate majority whip’s ability to push an online sales tax bill onto the congressional agenda showed once again that he has a knack for delivering on the retail industry’s top priorities by bypassing powerful committee chairmen and besting well-connected opponents like the banking lobby. This maneuvering has led to some grumbling from within his party, but Durbin argues his work on behalf of retailers is transforming Democrats’ relationship with a vital sector of the business community — a bond that will no doubt prove important during the tax and budget debates ahead. … The Senate is expected to pass the online sales tax bill on May 6.” http://politi.co/ZV5vAL

FBI FINDS TRACES OF RICIN IN SUSPECT’S MARTIAL ARTS STUDIO – Reuters’ Emily Lane reports from Jackson, Miss: “A dust mask and other items seized from the martial arts studio of a Mississippi man charged with sending poison-laced letters to President Barack Obama and two other public officials tested positive for ricin, according to a court document released on Tuesday. Records seized by the FBI also showed that Tupelo martial arts instructor Everett Dutschke ordered castor bean seeds, used to make ricin, from eBay, FBI Special Agent Stephen Thomason said in an eight-page affidavit. Dutschke, who is being held in jail without bond, is expected to appear in U.S. district court in Oxford, Mississippi, for a detention hearing on Thursday. Contacted by Reuters, Dutschke's attorney, public defender George Lucas, declined to comment. …

-- “Soon after the seeds were delivered to Dutschke's home address, someone using his laptop computer downloaded a publication on safe handling and storage of the poison, Thomason stated. An agent last week retrieved the contaminated dusk mask from a trash bin near Dutschke's former taekwondo studio. Dutschke was earlier seen by the FBI dumping items in the bin he collected from his studio, the affidavit stated. Traces of ricin were also discovered on four items found at the studio, including liquid removed from a drain and a filter containing items vacuumed from the studio floor, the affidavit said.” http://reut.rs/10rSCtK

FEINGOLD IN TALKS TO BECOME U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY IN AFRICA – Daniel Bice reports for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold is in talks with officials at the U.S. State Department to become the special envoy for the Great Lakes region in Africa, according to sources. ‘Nothing has been finalized yet,’ said one source. … Feingold, who has kept a relatively low profile since losing to Ron Johnson in 2010, has long held an interest in African affairs. For six years, the Wisconsin senator served as chairman of the Subcommittee on African Affairs while a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.” http://bit.ly/102W5Qm

TUESDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – James McCaghren was first to correctly answer that President Obama's Transportation nominee, Anthony Foxx, attended Davidson College, home of the Wildcats and mascot Will E. Wildcat.

TODAY’S TRIVIA – Jason Mehta has today’s question: The NBA’s Jason Collins made history this week as the first openly gay professional sports athlete. Who was the first openly gay governor of a state? Bonus: What’s his or her connection to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi? First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me at swong@politico.com.

GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says “Sign Up.” http://www.politico.com/huddle/

Gun homicides have dropped steeply in the United States since their 1993 peak, a pair of reports released Tuesday showed, adding fuel to Congress' battle over whether to tighten restrictions on firearms.